South Coast Telecommunications Alliance (SCTA)
Held at General Research Corporation, Santa Barbara CA
September 27, 1995 - Minutes of Meeting
______________________________________________________ 

Moderator: Dale Taylor
45 attendees.

Announcements:

Mike Woodill: There is an article in today's LA Times regarding 1st home 
installation of ISDN line. A complete listing of internet access 
providers is listed in the Sports Section. 

The Arts Group has met a couple of times now. The minutes of the meeting
are on the Web now. The group decided we want to set up a page. This will
be published in Tri-Mix and is also listed on the web page. 

Dev Vrat distributed copies "Draft" Proceedings from the September 10th 
TeleComm.Unity event. Jan Ballard displayed the telecommunications 
"timeline" that was started at the event and continues to evolve. There 
will be a meeting next Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. at Jan Ballard's home 
to review the draft proceedings and to plan the "next steps" for Santa 
Barbara TeleComm.Unity.

There are a few tee shirts left over from Culler Lecture. 

Dale introduced Mr. Brandon Jones who spoke on the "San Luis Obispo North 
County Telecommuting Feasibility Study." Brandon Jones was retained as a 
consultant by the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments to conduct a six 
month study to evaluate the feasibility of creating one or more 
"Telecenters" in the Paso Robles area.

It's good to see a group like this. We would like to start a group like 
this in San Luis Obispo County.
It's also good to see so many women here, since the Internet right now is 
still dominated by men.

My car died on the way down from Paso Robles. Thanks to 
telecommunications i.e.: the cellular phone,
I was able to make the necessary connections to get here. 

The "industrial age" is passing and we are now in the "information age." 
This telecommunications revolution is so powerful because it is "asset 
based" on something that everybody wants. This is how cultures have 
grown. 

A Telecenter is a facility where local workers can go and have access to 
computers, communications facilities, copiers, and other common office 
facilities, in order to avoid long commutes. Antelope Valley is an 
example. It grew out of the Northridge earthquake. CalTrans funded the 
$50,000 study to learn if telecenter(s) in northern SLO County might 
mitigate potential nightmare traffic congestion created by a proposed 
freeway construction project on the Cuesta grade between Paso Robles and 
San Luis Obispo. In fact, CalTrans didn't have enough money to fund the 
freeway project but we proceeded with the study. 

The study consisted of:

* A survey of existing telecenters throughout California; * Identifying 
particular needs of businesses and public agencies; * Identifying 
potential users;
* Analyzing sites that might be developing telecommute activities; * 
Developing an operations plan to establish operating costs 

We found that stand alone telecenters generally are not working. We 
surveyed known telecommuting sites and performed some site visits. What 
we found is that these centers are underutilized and under capacity. We 
found we were "barking up the wrong tree." So I said, "Let me come up 
with another plan that will work."

What's wrong? Why don't telecommuting centers work? 

1. Management Resistance.
2. Government: Talks the good talk -- but doesn't walk the good walk. 
(e.g.: CalTrans has a telecommuting policy but is not doing it). 3. 
Educational Institutions: They don't really understand it. 

A Caltrans representative countered that he is a supervisor at CalTrans 
and his experience is that CalTrans does use telecommuting. His unit is 
supportive of telecommuting.

Brandon recommended that telecenters not be pursued. Government should be 
pushing "telecommuting." "Home based telecommuting" is growing and 
working well.

Why aren't tele-commuting centers working? They were constructed but no 
publicity was provided about them. We found that you have to set up and 
advocate "telecommuting policy." Government has to say, "We believe in 
telecommuting." This government should require that homes have ISDN 
lines, etc.

The second problem is education. Even the educators don't understand it. 
(e.g.: they have asked me to come and teach them what telecommuting is 
and how it works).

Comment about management's desire to monitor their workers and observe 
their time and presence on the job. Brandon responded, managers need to 
monitor the deadlines and the quality of the work, instead of measuring 
the amount of "time" that their employees work.

Socially telecommuting introduces a whole new "positive paradigm" since 
people will be near their homes once again. This will lead to livable 
communities and tele-villages.

Discussion of not having it "All or nothing." You could telecommute a few 
days a week and this would reduce the demand for new parking structures, 
etc. 

Another example is to rethink and change the way you manage your work. 
For instance in a public contact job, instead of dealing with the public 
and doing paper work at the same time, why not stay at home and do the 
paperwork on some days and go to work and only deal with the public on 
other days? 

Congestion is getting worse, we are getting more crowded. These changes 
will force managers to change from "Theory X" to "Theory Y" management 
and use "program management" techniques.

This is all about economic vitality -- about lining up to the global 
economy. Instead of flying a sick child to Stanford, wouldn't it be nice 
to bring the Stanford doctor to you via multi-media? How about attending 
a small specialized class at NYU in New York from your home? UC is 
already conducting extended learning classes. Social centers are emerging 
on-line. 

In SLO the Regional Technical Alliance (RTA) is headquartered in Santa 
Maria. The "peace dividend" -- defense industry conversion funds -- are 
being divied out in block grants to RTAs across the State. The RTAs are 
established to create jobs and retrain displaced workers. The #1 grant 
criteria is "Adding value to the community." The RTA grants provide one 
time "seed money." The cost sharing formula is changing 75%/25%. There is 
a web page for the Regional Technical Alliance. 

I am working with the RTA in Santa Maria to link Paso Robles to San Luis 
Obispo and creating the virtual university in Paso Robles. It will have 
work stations with modems for training. It will be a multi-media resource 
center. After the first one, we will build two more in San Luis Obispo 
County. The first resource center will be added to a resort project that 
is currently being planned. 

Right now, if an internet trainer wanted to deliver training to 
Atascadero Hospital, they would have to load up some laptops and go the 
hospital. With such a resource center, the hospital staff could go to the 
resource center and be trained there. This opens up tremendous 
opportunities. Our first resource center is based on a model in Kentucky. 
We are looking what went right and what went wrong..

The report on the Telecenters shows that six per cent of the work force 
in LA now telecommute. The virtual corporation is alive and well now. As 
far back as 1972 Brandon took teleconferencing classes where the 
instructor was on the monitor and a grad student monitored the room. 

The reality is this is coming. You may "get it all" directly in your 
home. Communities must get wired up and be prepared for what is coming. 
"If you wire it they will come."

Question about the true economic value of moving information back and 
forth vs. "manufacturing and agrarian" commerce. 

It was estimated that it would cost $180,000,000 to widen Cuesta Grade 
with a 1.75% cost increase per year. Telecommuting has a great potential 
to reduce the need and/or scope of such projects. 

In the near future everyone will drive less. Everyone will talk to each
other more. We will recapture the "village" concept which has been lost
with the automobile. More one-on one contact and accountability will be
possible. Like the growth of the coffeehouses, we see on-line social
centers developing. 

Enhanced planning facilities: On-line land use planning forums will be 
used in order to secure broad based citizen input. This is occurring in a 
couple of weeks in the Goleta Old Town Design Charette. Local residents 
will be able to participate via the Internet. 

All this will not occur as a cataclysmic event. Telecommuting will move 
into our lives in subtle and natural ways. It will not replace entirely 
the existing system. It will affect our lives and impact us in very 
positive ways. It will allow us to stay with our families, take 
university classes, enrich our lives. I believe in this passionately. 
When we look back in ten years and see the change we will say... 
"unbelievable." Each of us should be challenged to take action to prepare 
for what is coming. 

Dale Taylor announced that the subject of the next SCTA on October 25 
will be a report out from the Santa Barbara TeleComm.Unity September 10 
event organizers and breakout groups.

Minutes by Dev Vrat imago@west.net 564-2409